Robin Hood the anarchist

Certain folks are fond of citing Robin Hood as some form of moral or ethical support for the idea of wealth redistribution. After all, who doesn't like the story of Robin rushing around and returning stolen gold to the poor peasants of Sherwood?

What these folks fail to mention is exactly who it was that Robin was robbing. In those days, the only wealthy people were the nobles... also known as the ruling class... aka, the government. People ignore the fact that the villain of the story was a government employee, the sheriff. People ignore the fact that the gold Robin was stealing back was first stolen in the form of various taxes.

Robin Hood was not the prototypical socialist expropriating wealth from honest merchants who had managed to do well for themselves. Robin Hood was an anarchist actively working to bankrupt the government and return the wealth to those who had earned it.